Jennifer Shiman
Jennifer Shiman, cartoonist
CA, USA
http://www.angryalien.com
"Presenting: my home-office/studio! I'm a self-employed cartoonist/internet animator based in Los Angeles, California. For the last 2 years, I've been working full-time in this spot, creating Flash-animated shorts of bunnies who re-enact movies in 30 seconds."
"Detail of my primary workspace. I draw and ink the artwork for my cartoons by hand, then scan them into the computer for the rest of production...hence the lightbox under my keyboard! The area is dotted with a bobblehead cow on my monitor, various festive post-it notes from my sweetheart/fiance Douglas; my Batman tin full of drawing instruments, drawing tablet and other miscellany."
"Piles of James Bond movies (my bunnies re-enacted a medley of James Bond movie moments, so I needed to brush up); as well as therequisite and delicious cuppa coffee."
"Bookshelf of resources which include all my animation reference stuff and favorite graphic novels, Dungeons and Dragons manuals, manga, etc. The top shelf features Doug's chimp business card holder, chess clock, and wacky alarm clock."
"One great part of this room is a giant built-in cabinet, where I put my second desk for drawing and recording voices. Remove the chair, and I can hide the desk completely! On the side of the cabinets is a magnetic board with photos and inspirational postcards picked up during various travels."
"Sitting on the desk inside that cabinet is a wooden CD holder that I filled with toys, matchbooks and file backups; all items within are functional in their own way (extra markers! homemade snowglobe! more bobbleheads! gargoyle! squeaky laptop Buddha!)"
"Inset of my wall of good fortunes. Everytime I get a good fortune
cookie fortune, I place it here. I'm happy to report, they've reallyadded up! I like to glance at these while I draw. I also stuck some bunny drawings and other significant doodles there for good measure."
"Thank you so much for letting me share my workspace stuffs" - Jennifer |
Brian Biggs
Brian Biggs, Illustrator,
Philadelphia, PA
www.mrbiggs.com
Hi, I'm Brian Biggs and I'm an illustrator who lives and works in a big drafty house in Northwestern Philadelphia. I share the house with my two magical children and our two large, bored cats. I've been working mostly on children's books for the last few years. I also do a lot of editorial work, various product things and some animation now and then.
My studio consists of the two small rooms on the top floor of the house. I've been in this space since 2001 and after a major renovation this last summer, it's finally a place that I really enjoy spending the majority of my time. For someone who freelances at home, I believe this to be an important prerequisite. It's a cozy space, but I'm looking forward to getting a studio outside my house, hopefully later this year. I'd like to have more room for larger painting, printing, and animation projects.
I kind of refer to the two rooms as the analog and the digital rooms. First on display here is the analog room. This is where I do all my drawing and reading and scheming.
The drawing table is a huge old drafting table bought at a flea market in San Francisco. The smaller drawing board was designed by my brother and me and built by him. Last summer I installed the giant bulletin board material. This allows for a rotating display of whatever is currently inspiring me, and whatever I'm currently working on. The tv is not a guilty pleasure, but rather a lifeline when I'm way up on the third floor late nights. It's attached to a DVD player (not pictured).
The bulk of my work consists of india ink on paper via brush, which I color in Photoshop. But I've been playing more in other analog materials lately. Acrylic, inks, and something called "acrylagouache." The old Coca-Cola case is full of colored inks, and the little drawers on the shelf hold various pencil leads, erasers, and pen nibs from the olden days.
The utility shelves aren't pretty. But they hold the all-important file bins full of sketches, manuscripts, and various other ephemera from the books I am illustrating. The framed poster was designed for Top Shelf Comics in 1997, the bike helmets are from a project for Bell Helmets, and the card racks on top hold an assortment of promo cards.
The big red reading chair is typically full of a cat. The book shelves behind it hold copies of the books I've illustrated, reference books for current projects, and my beloved French children's books.
This is the top of another bookshelf. Illustrators are somewhat required to have collections of some kind of toys, and I'm no exception. This is a small part of the larger pile, and includes an Evel Knievel die-cast metal rocket, Ultraman, some plastic animals, and a cool metal passenger rocket. The photo is of Ann Margret and Elvis in rehearsals for Viva Las Vegas. This particular bookshelf consists entirely of graphic novels.
Now, if you'll follow me...
The digital room is where the majority of the actual work gets done. While everything I do starts with pencils and inks, it all gets completed on the Mac.
I currently run a G5 iMac. I have several backup hard drives for archiving. To the left of the iMac is a turntable I use for listening to old 45s, and also for sampling loops and beats for my secret life as an electronic band. You can see a small keyboard under the laser printer used for the same purposes.
The desk is a solid wooden door I painted yellow and rigged with plumbing-pipe legs and large casters for easy rolling. Back in the bad old days of SCSI and Syquest Drives, one had to frequently get behind one's Mac to troubleshoot. This is no longer a problem. The stools came from the biology lab at Stanford University. They are incredibly comfortable to sit in for an entire day.
These flat files sit behind me while I work at the computer. They were "reclaimed" from a dumpster behind an office in San Jose, California and contain my illustration and comics originals, collected posters, pads of paper, old magazines, and I'm not sure what else. The plywood surface was stained to match the door/desk and makes a good surface on which to cut and glue stuff. And in case you're wondering, yes, it's ALWAYS this clean and organized... Sure...
This protective totem was left by the studio's previous tenant, my ex wife. In the summer, around 2:00pm, the sun hits the window just right and the skull is projected onto the floor. It's freaky. |
Joel Kimmel
Joel Kimmel, Illustrator
Ottawa, Ontario
www.joelkimmel.com
“Welcome to my studio! I work out of my apartment in downtown Ottawa as a freelance illustrator. I spend most of my days in this part of my apartment drawing, sketching and painting my newest pieces.
"I have huge windows to the left of my drafting table that provide more than enough natural light. It gets incredibly sunny in the mid-afternoon but thankfully I have some awesome curtains that my girlfriend Chantal (www.chantalbennett.com) made. You can see how cold it is here in the winter.”
“I have most of my supplies close at hand on a nice shelving unit I found in my building’s basement. I regularly get cool stuff for free out of the garbage.
I keep all my ink and watercolor necessities on this shelf, as well as some basketball figurines, baby Jordan shoes (I’m planning ahead), and some soapstone that I haven’t gotten around to carving yet.
You can see a few framed paintings and things on the walls around my table. There’s a Stephanie Pui-Mun Law print I got for Chantal for her birthday, my Jack Bauer painting and my Madman painting. Then there’s a Norman Rockwell calendar, and some old pieces by my friends Martin Wittfooth and Sam Weber. That handsome chap in the photograph is my grandfather (many years ago, of course).”
“I found the wooden John Labatt box in my apartment’s basement which is helpful to store my portfolios, labels, and lots of promotional supplies. Below that I also have a sweet stash of Letraset dry transfer sheets that are always fun to use. You can also see my Marshall Bravestarr toy standing guard on a box of Cohibas.
“I work on a nice and big Leonar drafting table that my parents got for free about 20 years ago. I stretch my watercolor paper on a 24”x32” gator board so it’s nice to have a table to easily maneuver all my supplies on without feeling too cramped. I sit on a tall bar stool that isn’t very comfortable.
I used to work at an art supply store so I’ve got a lot of great brushes and a nice collection of paints. I use an old Toulouse-Lautrec dry-erase calendar to mix and water down my inks on. It works perfectly.”
“I always cut a full sheet of watercolor paper in half and stretch both sides. It gives me two large sheets of paper to work on and I usually get 2 paintings on each one so I often have a few paintings going at one time.”
“Every now and then I like to make ink swirls in my water jar. The little pen to the right of the jar is the greatest pen ever invented, the Pelikan Grafos. One dip of that thing in the ink well and I can draw for a good 15-20 minutes straight. You can only find them on eBay these days and they come with a nice selection of fine nibs. I highly recommend it to anyone who uses nibs for inking or making swirls in their water jar. Thanks for visiting my studio!" -Joel
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